Fishing Blog primarily about fly fishing in the UK and USA. The objective is to promote the gentle art of casting the fly and catching beautiful fish. The author although a qualified fly fishing instructor with 40 years experience does not teach commercially but likes teaching and promoting fly fishing as a hobby.

Saturday, 23 May 2015

The reason for writing this at the age of 69 is to put down as much as
I can still remember that might be of interest for my children and
grandchildren (and others) before I lose the ability to recall. When my mother got Alzheimer's I realised that there were lots of things I should have asked her before she entered the land of the bewildered! I will try to keep it in rough chronological
order although memories recalled spark other memories in all sorts of
order.

When I was born on 10th March 1946 in hospital in
Hammersmith my parents were living in Cambalt Rd, Putney, where they had lived
during the 2nd World War. There they were bombed and houses right
next to the one they rented a flat in were destroyed. I don’t have any
recollection of that because I wasn’t born yet.
However, I do remember a dressing table they had that had fragments of
glass buried in its back where a window had blown in.

Shortly after the War my father made £600 from gambling at the Epsom
races and was able to buy 59 Braemar Avenue, Wimbledon Park, a house that was
brand new as the previous house had been hit by a German bomb. The total cost of the house was £2000. My Dad
(Ted Carter) told me that the house had been bombed because it was near the
railway bridge in Wimbledon Park. He said that if you looked at the new houses
in the roads nearby you could see the path the stick of bombs had made in the
direction of the bridge. The Germans missed the bridge!

My first clear memory is of being upset because I was being told I
have to sleep in the little bedroom because my mummy was going to be in my
bedroom to have a baby! I can remember being out in the garden because
something was going on in the house and then being told I could come in and see
my mother with my new baby brother. I was relieved to see my mother, the jury
was still out on the new brother.

Something that had a strong influence on me was being invited next
door by Uncle Geoff (Geoff Kiralfy) to see his model railway. I remember it as
being at eye level (my eye level) such that I felt I could walk under it, with
lots of tracks at different levels and trains disappearing into and emerging
from tunnels. It left a profound impression on me that I wanted to create
something like that (and I have done that twice, once for my children and once
for my grandchildren).

Sadly Uncle Geoff and his wife broke up and Uncle Geoff moved away and
the house was sold.

My first day at Wimbledon Park Primary School at the age of 5 had me crying
because I wanted my Mum, but I soon settled in and enjoyed primary school. One
morning I was late for school and Mum decided to take me down on the crossbar
of her bike. The school crossing lady
had not turned up and there was a motorcycle policeman manning the crossing. He
told my mother off for carrying me on the bike which upset us both. I was
always a bit afraid of motor cycle policemen after that.

Things I remember about Primary school are: getting into trouble for
putting plasticine on a radiator to get it soft and sticky and then pressing it
on a girls head, it had to be cut out; slipping over on an ice slide we had
made in the playground and knocking the wind out of myself, I could not catch
my breath and thought I would die; having my eyebrow knocked off by standing
too near a young batsman swinging a cricket bat; getting told off by the deputy
head for chasing girls with my friends; taking the milk round the classrooms as
a milk monitor. Then with what milk was
left over trying to see how many one third of a pints we could drink, and one
boy passing out and banging his head on the wall!

Positive things I remember about my Dad were when I was ill and he
bought me a present home, I think it was a model. As far as I can remember that
was the only time he did something like that, but I am probably doing him an
injustice. However, usually it was my mother who provided presents and treats. On Christmas Eve Chris and I both hung up
pillow cases at the ends of our beds ready for Santa. We then tried to stay
awake to see him come but we always failed. However, we would wake up as early
as 4.00 am to start opening our presents. Mum always made sure our pillow cases
were full with a variety of things all wrapped up so we had the pleasure of
unwrapping them. By the time we had
opened them all, our bedrooms looked like a battlefield.

Wednesday, 20 May 2015

I can just hear you all saying "I thought this blog was meant to be about fly fishing and all we are getting is some old codger moaning about his hospital experiences!" Well this old codger is conscious that he is missing one of the best times to fish, with the water cool and the rainbow trout feisty at Bewl and the Wiltshire brown trout remembering their attraction to lunching on mayflies. Oh to boat fish the drift at Bewl or to stalk brownies in the crystal clear waters of the Avon! Just being there will be a tonic. So what is stopping me, because lots of people have offered to take me and I know they all mean it. Currently the situation is that I am in a lot of pain from my right lung, the chemotherapy makes me feel a bit bilious and I get out of breath. If I take the prescribed morphine for the pain then I am very light headed and could probably walk on the water! Casting right handed would be painful but I can cast left handed, not as well but good enough to tempt a trout. So my short term goal is to master the chemo and the pain and to get on or near the water with a helpful pal as soon as it is possible.

Meanwhile, my lovely wife puts up with me being irritable and she drove me to St Christopher's Hospice yesterday, a friendly cheery place, where a lovely lady called Ann spent an hour reviewing my situation with me and introducing me to the services they can offer.

I am amazed at the support I get from the health and other services, key nurse workers call to see if I am OK, a dietitian wants to see me, the district nurse comes to check on me and the urology dept at the hospital want to see me (I am not sure I want to see them).

Apart from calls and e mails from friends and family my biggest comfort is my ipad tablet because it lets me watch catch up TV on BBC iplayer anytime night and day. The BBC have such good programmes hidden among some popular rubbish. The really good ones distract me completely from the discomfort and pain, so well done BBC!

Anyway if you are fit and healthy please make the most of it and get out and do something exciting, I really believe that as well as helping others, we are meant to enjoy the journey!

Monday, 18 May 2015

Having volunteered to take part in the MRI clinical trial to see the effect it had on my cancer I had to sign a consent form to go into the doughnut! I didn't mind as long as they don't send me the electricity bill! Now I was pretty well briefed several times over as to what to expect, that is:-

You lie still in a confined space for 30 minutes or so (I got the "or so" bonus I think).

It is noisy so you need to wear ear protection (really).

Inside the ear defenders are head phones so they can play music and tell you when to breath (very helpful).

There will be a lot of noise and as a bonus heavy vibration, oh and by the way there will be metal plates resting on your poor old chest and at one point they will get warm! Am I to be toasted?

Finally in your left hand will be a rubber ball, squeeze it hard and you will be ejected from the tube at high speed! I made that bit up, the squeezing of the ball stops the machine and gently returns you to the real world.

I hadn't paid a lot of attention to the briefing, but it was all true. Having made me comfortable lying completely flat, the angels departed the room, someone pressed a button and I slide into the doughnut. It felt like being a suspended animation capsule in a space ship heading for Alpha Centauri. I was lying there all relaxed when a voice asked what sort of music I wanted, having discarded Elton Johns "Rocket Man" as being a bit OTT I asked if they had anything by Dire Straits? Sadly they didn't (so now I know what to put in their Christmas stocking)! Eventually we settled on some "Easy Listening tracks", a bit of a waste for what was about to happen.

What they said was all true! The noise was really noisy and the vibration was like someone hitting the machine with a sledge hammer, the plates got warm towards the end and the music was all wrong, it should have been heavy metal! As someone who use to travel into London on the underground (railway) and as a caver I was use to confined spaces. The inside of the doughnut was less than 2 inches from the tip of my nose (I obviously have a big head, no your not surprised) but what made it wonderfully non claustrophobic was that some inspired engineer had arranged to have cool air blowing down the tunnel and over my face. Brilliant!

Saturday, 16 May 2015

Being told you are being referred to the Royal Marsden Hospital is a mixed message, it has a reputation as one of the best cancer hospitals in the world but then do you really want to be at even the best?

The lovely people were expecting me (which always helps). My folder of notes was ready and I was taken for all the usual basic health checks. When it was confirmed that I was still alive a lovely key worker nurse called Karon came to see us to explain that her role was to support us and answer questions etc. Then we met Doctor Raj Kumar who helpfully explained:-

A) why I was there

B) what they were going to do

When I asked him for an indication of how roughly long I could expect to live he said "oh you want to talk numbers do you?" I said yes please? He said "if the chemo goes well on average we would expect around 2 years." He then asked if I would be happy to assist with some research that involved MRI scans. I said I had suddenly developed an overpowering desire to help with medical research!

Doctor Kumar's boss, Mary O' Brien, came to visit and was very kind and helpful, she modified Dr Kumar's prescribed chemo as she noted I had been losing weight and it was agreed that I would go on two chemo treatments Pemetrexed and Carboplatin. I was to be given the chemo at 3 weekly intervals over a 9 week period (I think).

Then I met the amazing head radiologist (she was so enthusiastic and happy I missed getting her name) who was excited that I had volunteered to do the MRI experiment! She explained that I would have 3 scans, one before chemo, one halfway through and one on conclusion of the chemo. This would enable them to see if the chemo was effective or not.

I was asked to keep track of my use of morphine and given pills to take before kicking off with chemo. I came away feeling I was in good hands with very kind and professional friends.

My next post will be all about the amazing experience of having an MRI scan!!!!

Wednesday, 13 May 2015

A lot has happened to me since my last post nearly a month ago. I had a biopsy operation in St George's Hospital, Tooting. That was a bit challenging as they got me in quickly and prepared me (I had to fast) and then at 4 pm the surgeon appeared and said sorry but they had run out of time in the theatre and could not operate today. I was less than happy, as you would expect, but I did understand that when operating they sometimes find things they didn't anticipate so operations can take longer. So having had dinner I started another fast and they fitted me in the next day 16th April with a right VATS drainage and biopsy. Its called "key hole" surgery but to me afterwards it felt more like "coal hole" surgery (only people of my generation and older will understand the joke).After the op I think I was on a bit of a high. When the porter pushed me on the bed into the lift (elevator) I got curious looks from a couple already in the lift. I said to them "Isn't this a wonderful hospital?" to which they replied "Yes it certainly is" I then said "Yes, I have just had their first brain transplant and you can't see the scar" in response to which everyone including the porter collapsed in a fit of laughter.St Georges put me on morphine for the pain and that upset my plumbing so when I got home (20th April) I could not urinate and was in agony, a lovely male GP (he looked like the Angel Gabriel) visited and referred me to Accident and Emergency (A & E) where a super Scots fly fisherman (we talked fly fishing all the time so I hardly felt a thing) fitted me with a catheter (a tube up my penis) and a bag (24th April). A whole litre of urine came whizzing out, ah relief! They decided to keep me in hospital and I found myself back on my old Heathfield 2 Ward among the friendly docs and nurses.I had an endoscopy to check my back passage and that proved to be OK, hurrah! Then Rosalind and I were summoned to a meeting with the Consultants, Docs and a lovely kind specialist nurse and I was given the bad news. I had mesothelioma (lung cancer) caused by exposure to asbestos and I was being referred to the Royal Marsden Specialist Cancer Hospital at Sutton. I was a bit upset and shed a tear. Rosalind was solid and supportive. I then discovered the value of comedians as 2 hours later I was watching Jack Dee on my tablet and laughing my head off!